Do You Think They Will? GOP “Plans” to De-Fund Planned Barrenhood Next Year November 30, 2016

We’ve heard it before. Voters gave the GOPe party unprecedented majorities in both the House and Senate in recent years, and yet we were told they could do essentially nothing on the pro-life front because they didn’t have the presidency. Now they have that, too, though a reduced majority in the Senate, so the PR is now that the GOP will now, finally, try to de-fund Planned Barrenhood. I’ll believe it when I see it. With Collins and other libs remaining among the Repubnik Senate Caucus, and with dems always possessing what seems to be far greater moral fervor for their cause than the R’s have for any socially conservative cause, I remain firmly skeptical. We’ve been lied to far too many times for me to trust just about anything these cats say:

“The entire movement is poised for a victory,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an advocacy group that opposes abortion. “We have every assurance [from congressional leaders] that it’s going to happen. Nobody is saying ‘whether,’ the question is ‘when.’”…

Eliminating Planned Parenthood’s approximately $550 million in federal funding — most of it through Medicaid — would be abortion opponent’s most tangible victory since 2007, when the Supreme Court upheld a ban on so-called partial birth abortions.

One possible approach is to attach the defunding of Planned Parenthood to a repeal of Obamacare and pass both items using reconciliation. That would only require a simple majority, though there is disagreement even among GOP Senators about whether a full repeal of Obamacare is possible using this maneuver. No one seems ready to commit to a plan of action yet which is probably wise given the level of push-back it will generate.

Republicans say no final decision has been made about what they’ll do next year, although one GOP congressional aide said that among conservatives “there is an expectation that it will be included in any reconciliation bill.” But if the Obamacare repeal legislation runs into any roadblocks because it includes defunding Planned Parenthood, the provision could be cut.

Naturally, Democrats are prepared to make sure any such effort runs into every possible roadblock. And with the GOP’s narrow advantage in the Senate, it will matter if some GOP Senators refuse to back the plan:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) opposed using the reconciliation tactic to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare in 2015. Another moderate, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), supported it. But she also introduced an amendment with Collins to strike the Planned Parenthood provision, indicating that she had reservations about cutting off funding. [Of course they would. Both are strident pro-aborts]

As for President-elect Trump, he made clear during the primaries that he is committed to defunding PP because his position on abortion (which he said had evolved over time), but he was also the only Republican who defended the group saying, “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood.”

You can see why I am underwhelmed. It smells to me like more kabuki-theater, deliberate failure, “well, we tried, but those darned democrats with their tiny minority just foiled us again,” etc. In other words, a set up. Good for the pro-life groups, though. Great pitch angle for donations – “donate to us and we’ll de-fund Planned Parenthood!”

Perhaps I’ve become a bit jaded, but as I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. I think the GOP could foul up de-funding Planned Barrenhood, let alone repealing Obamacare, with a 72-seat majority, let alone a 52-seat one. That’s because most Republican senators don’t want it repealed. Think of all the graft they can skim off federal control of 20% of the economy? Cha-ching.

We can look at it this way–if we expect Christ to be center front in the making of our nation’s laws, and ultimately the laws of all society, we need to return Him to center front in our Catholic churches. It’s happening in places, so we can hope.

I’m with you. You’re exactly right. We’ll see what Trump is, but the Congress hasn’t changed much and we know how ready they are to fail. Deliberate, planned failure. So we’ll see if anything really changes with a notional conservative in the White House.

While disappointing, if having stopped Hildebeast is all that comes of this, it would have been worth it. But even if nothing changes, it already has. Like Brexit, even if never implemented, Western Civ is not quite dead yet. The Globalists may remain in control, the elections may have been nothing more than for show, but when the elites stuck their head out of their fortified compounds to see what we thought of them, we told them. It may be only a symbolic F*, but it is “F*” nonetheless.

I remember that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, was one who voted alongside the Republicans to defund Planned Barren hood. A few weeks ago, a news report said that he is considering switching parties – I will believe it when I see it.

I am glad to hear that Mark Kirk isn’t returning to the Senate – Kirk was a “Republican” from Illinois who supported the ACA. I won’t miss him. I didn’t miss Lincoln Chaffie years ago when he lost – and he used to be a “Republican.”